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Surpreme Court of NJ tells christie to restore 500 mil for poorest school districts

Re: Surpreme Court of NJ tells christie to restore 500 mil for poorest school distric

sounds reasonably fair. Most of Christie's cuts here are intact, the poorer district get some funds restored, and they can get on with trying to balance the budget.
 
Re: Surpreme Court of NJ tells christie to restore 500 mil for poorest school distric

NJ has the highest per-student spending rate (Info here) and spends 1/3 of its total budget on education (Info here). They rank 7th in the nation (Info here) per the Obama-led educational assessments and success plans. Perhaps they can find a way to manage the funding a bit better and get creative. Maybe they can defer to states ranked 1-6 for ideas? Maybe teachers could accept the 8% pension/health care contribution and stop whining about how poorly they're treated? Maybe administration could shave a little off the top? They spend over 30billion a year on education...500 million is only a 1.6% cut.
 
Re: Surpreme Court of NJ tells christie to restore 500 mil for poorest school distric

NJ has the highest per-student spending rate (Info here) and spends 1/3 of its total budget on education (Info here). They rank 7th in the nation (Info here) per the Obama-led educational assessments and success plans. Perhaps they can find a way to manage the funding a bit better and get creative. Maybe they can defer to states ranked 1-6 for ideas? Maybe teachers could accept the 8% pension/health care contribution and stop whining about how poorly they're treated? Maybe administration could shave a little off the top? They spend over 30billion a year on education...500 million is only a 1.6% cut.

All that is true tess...and the reason for it is that little New Jersey has 620 school districts all with Superintendents making 150 to 250 K plus benefits with secretaries with benes....and this is not the states fault its the voters fault they all want HOME RULE so they have to pay for it....NJ should have consolidated down to one school district a county years ago..its would save hundreds of millions.
 
Re: Surpreme Court of NJ tells christie to restore 500 mil for poorest school distric

New Jersey's no-school school districts | NJ.com
26 districts with no physical schools... shipping students out to other districts... but maintaining the personnel to run the 'district' like 'elected boards of education and property taxpayer-paid administrators'...

however...

'But a new law is finally eliminating these nonoperating school districts, merging them wholly into the districts where their kids are educated and where the bulk of school-related property taxes have gone all along.'

This will leave NJ with only 24 more districts than towns. Now they need to work on those 24.
 
Re: Surpreme Court of NJ tells christie to restore 500 mil for poorest school distric

New Jersey's no-school school districts | NJ.com
26 districts with no physical schools... shipping students out to other districts... but maintaining the personnel to run the 'district' like 'elected boards of education and property taxpayer-paid administrators'...

however...

'But a new law is finally eliminating these nonoperating school districts, merging them wholly into the districts where their kids are educated and where the bulk of school-related property taxes have gone all along.'

This will leave NJ with only 24 more districts than towns. Now they need to work on those 24.


you do understand thats 24 school districts OVER and above the 620 active school districts right ?
 
Re: Surpreme Court of NJ tells christie to restore 500 mil for poorest school distric

All that is true tess...and the reason for it is that little New Jersey has 620 school districts all with Superintendents making 150 to 250 K plus benefits with secretaries with benes....and this is not the states fault its the voters fault they all want HOME RULE so they have to pay for it....NJ should have consolidated down to one school district a county years ago..its would save hundreds of millions.

By comparison:
Texas has a population of 25,145,561 (8% of country total) and has over 1200 operating school districts.
New Jersey has a population of 8,791,894 (2.8% of country total) and has over 590 operating school districts.

Texas is 262,400 square miles.
New Jersey is 8729 square miles.

I'm not sure what the average is, but the SI of Dallas ISD was making 328K a year before he decided to leave (thank God) and go to Georgia. Dallas is the second largest in the state, so for argument's sake, let's say the average is 150k. That's $180,000,000 in pay for super intendents alone in Texas. In New Jersey it's $88,650,000.

Surely, some districts could be combined. I can think of about 6 combinations in the DFW area alone, based solely on proximity/county of origin.
 
Re: Surpreme Court of NJ tells christie to restore 500 mil for poorest school distric

All that is true tess...and the reason for it is that little New Jersey has 620 school districts all with Superintendents making 150 to 250 K plus benefits with secretaries with benes....and this is not the states fault its the voters fault they all want HOME RULE so they have to pay for it....NJ should have consolidated down to one school district a county years ago..its would save hundreds of millions.

This. Demanding teachers pay into their pensions is a great idea; however, its not the cause of the problem far from it. Hell, some teachers (nationally) barely make middle class wages and the only reason they are middle class is because of the pension/benefit system

Every state should be able to managed with 10,000 -15,000 students/district, which if class size is 20 (small) is 500-750 teachers/super indented
 
Re: Surpreme Court of NJ tells christie to restore 500 mil for poorest school distric

you do understand thats 24 school districts OVER and above the 620 active school districts right ?

um...yeah...that's kinda what the 'only 24 more districts than towns.'

Looking up a little more info, there are 566 municipalities in NJ. Since there are 620 school districts(not counting the 24 that from the linked piece should be gone), that leaves 54 districts more than municipalities. In many cases, this is because the districts have been split due to thier size... they would be to cumbersome to maintain effectively otherwise. CHerry Hill East & West, for example.
 
Re: Surpreme Court of NJ tells christie to restore 500 mil for poorest school distric

um...yeah...that's kinda what the 'only 24 more districts than towns.'

Looking up a little more info, there are 566 municipalities in NJ. Since there are 620 school districts(not counting the 24 that from the linked piece should be gone), that leaves 54 districts more than municipalities. In many cases, this is because the districts have been split due to thier size... they would be to cumbersome to maintain effectively otherwise. CHerry Hill East & West, for example.

A single SI couldn't handle 500 teachers?
 
Re: Surpreme Court of NJ tells christie to restore 500 mil for poorest school distric

Since when does a state supreme court have authority to order the governer to spend money?????

If I were Christie, I would tell them to kiss my ass.
 
Re: Surpreme Court of NJ tells christie to restore 500 mil for poorest school distric

Since when does a state supreme court have authority to order the governer to spend money?????

If I were Christie, I would tell them to kiss my ass.

Technically, according to the OP, he could. The decision of the court was 3-2., so it's technically a recommendation. The vote would have to be 4-1 for it to be a binding motion.

Associate Justice Roberto Rivera-Soto dissented, arguing that there weren't enough affirmative votes to require the state to follow the order. Joined by Associate Justice Helen Hoens, he argued that, as a matter of practice, four affirmative votes are needed to grant a motion.

"Although unwritten, that practice is borne out by the relevant empirical data," Rivera-Soto wrote.

He said the only cases decided by a 3-2 decision were temporary injunctions, not permanent rulings. Because of the gravity of the case, he wrote, "it is simply incomprehensible that any impartial observer would give them equal dignity."

However, Christie is being classy and not arguing the point. I think he has better things to do.
 
Re: Surpreme Court of NJ tells christie to restore 500 mil for poorest school distric

I teach in a poor district and let me tell ya........throwing money at our district hasn't helped. We get a lot of money and we still suck. Why do we suck? Because we have parents on meth or they're alcoholics. We have many teachers who don't give a crap and admins who are afraid to let them go. We have admins that spend all day in their offices instead of being involved. We have parents who don't speak English and cannot help their students. We have parents who don't value learning English, therefore, their kids don't.

I could go on and on. Money isn't going to change any of these things.
 
Re: Surpreme Court of NJ tells christie to restore 500 mil for poorest school distric

I teach in a poor district and let me tell ya........throwing money at our district hasn't helped. We get a lot of money and we still suck. Why do we suck? Because we have parents on meth or they're alcoholics. We have many teachers who don't give a crap and admins who are afraid to let them go. We have admins that spend all day in their offices instead of being involved. We have parents who don't speak English and cannot help their students. We have parents who don't value learning English, therefore, their kids don't.

I could go on and on. Money isn't going to change any of these things.

People not in the business find it too easy to blame teachers and administrators for any and all problems in education. There isn't much the school can do if the culture of the community does not promote education. When kids are out until 10pm playing basketball and parents whine every time little Johnny gets a homework assignment, what can the school do? What can the teachers do when the principal calls the teacher in and relays these parental complaints to the teachers?
 
Re: Surpreme Court of NJ tells christie to restore 500 mil for poorest school distric

The best news of this ruling is that it helps to affirm that government does has responsibility towards society.
 
Re: Surpreme Court of NJ tells christie to restore 500 mil for poorest school distric

The best news of this ruling is that it helps to affirm that government does has responsibility towards society.

You're right, however it's not the responsibility of the government to completely prop up society. We, the citizens have our responsibilities, too.
 
Re: Surpreme Court of NJ tells christie to restore 500 mil for poorest school distric

You're right, however it's not the responsibility of the government to completely prop up society. We, the citizens have our responsibilities, too.

Though, according to the article, apparently the New Jersey constitution requires the government to establish and maintain a "thorough and efficient system of free public schools."
 
Re: Surpreme Court of NJ tells christie to restore 500 mil for poorest school distric

um...yeah...that's kinda what the 'only 24 more districts than towns.'

Looking up a little more info, there are 566 municipalities in NJ. Since there are 620 school districts(not counting the 24 that from the linked piece should be gone), that leaves 54 districts more than municipalities. In many cases, this is because the districts have been split due to thier size... they would be to cumbersome to maintain effectively otherwise. CHerry Hill East & West, for example.

In NJ each county has a Superintendent of schools who oversees the Superintendents of schools of each munincipality its ABSURD...the teachers are the reason NJ schools are so horrifically expensive...its the top end
 
Re: Surpreme Court of NJ tells christie to restore 500 mil for poorest school distric

In NJ each county has a Superintendent of schools who oversees the Superintendents of schools of each munincipality its ABSURD...the teachers are the reason NJ schools are so horrifically expensive...its the top end

I don't think it's the teachers, it's the bureaucracy above the teachers. sure there are crap teachers not worth their pay. But there are really good ones, like the one who first helped me identify my sons Aspergers and worked with us to help him get the services and support he needed. She was a Godsend, and worth every penney she makes, and more.
 
Re: Surpreme Court of NJ tells christie to restore 500 mil for poorest school distric

The best news of this ruling is that it helps to affirm that government does has responsibility towards society.

That kind of obvious communistic, marxist, socialistic, liberal, progressive, leftist, trotskyite, extremist, collectivist mindset cannot be allowed to spread. It would be dangerous to the cult of the individual.;)
 
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